When and how did the monarchy in Britain cease to govern the country?
There are various answers depending what you mean by “govern the country”. Also, “the country” could mean England until 1707, Great Britain until 1801, and the United Kingdom since then (with a glitch in 1922, when the Republic of Ireland was separated from the United Kingdom). Forget Magna Carta. It was only a deal between the monarch and barons, that the former would work through a parliament and the latter would not apply their own local laws and punishments. Even so, the monarch could raise taxes and dismiss parliament whenever he/she chose, and so rule through a personal council of state. This continued until Charles I. The English civil wars 1642-51 were intended to break the power of monarchs to raise taxes, dismiss parliaments and make foreign policy. The return of the monarchy with Charles II in 1660 should have continued the constitutional development of the parliamentary government but it faltered with the accession of his brother James II in 1685. He wished to invoke again
